Airport blasting, a new principal, and the return of the C’ville GOP: News briefs

Check c-ville.com daily and pick up a copy of the paper Tuesday to for the latest Charlottesville and Albemarle news briefs and stories. Here’s a quick look at some of what we’ve had an eye on for the past week.

Local GOP candidates announce City Council run

Charlottesville’s Republican Committee is fielding candidates for City Council for the first time since 2006.

Michael Farruggio, a 25-year veteran of the Charlottesville Police Department who is retiring as a sergeant, and Republican Party Chair Charles “Buddy” Weber, announced last week that they’ll run a joint campaign to vie for the two open Council seats.

Republicans haven’t held office in the city since 2006, when conservative talk show host Rob Schilling lost reelection, and the local party hasn’t run multiple candidates since 2000. But party leaders indicated earlier in April that they’re ready for a resurgence: The Committee’s once-annual Reagan Dinner returned for the first time in 10 years, and welcomed such high-profile guests as Karl Rove and former Reagan cabinet member James H. Burnley IV.

At their campaign announcement event, Farruggio and Weber blasted the all-Democrat Council for “dithering” on issues that matter to residents. They criticized the recent adoption of a new stormwater utility fee, and said the local housing authority suffers from “chronic mismanagement.”

Five Democrats are vying for the chance to run for the pair of open seats. Incumbent Kristin Szakos, Wes Bellamy, Melvin Grady, Adam Lees, and Bob Fenwick will face off in a June 11 primary.

New CHS principal to start in July

Charlottesville High School will have a new principal next school year.

Aaron Bissonnette will join the school administration July 1. According to a city schools press release, Bissonnette has almost a decade of teaching and administrative experience in North Carolina, serving as an assistant principal at Union Pines High School in Cameron, Crain’s Creek Middle School in Carthage, and North Moore High School in Ritter.

Former principal Thomas Taylor left CHS last December to become a schools superintendent in Middlesex County, and the position has since been filled by William Clendaniel, an administrator from Northern Virginia.

The city’s release also announced that division spokeswoman Jane Lee’s last day with the city schools is May 7. Former spokeswoman Cass Cannon will return to fill the position on an interim basis.

Airport blasting to continue, despite city’s stop request

The Charlottesville Albemarle Airport won’t stop its rock blasting operations, despite a call from the City Council to halt the explosions that some local residents say are damaging their homes.

The airport has been operating a blast quarry on its property since last fall, generating rock and rubble to create fill for a long-planned runway extension. But homeowners in nearby Walnut Hill have since reported cracks in drywall, molding, and foundations, in addition to other issues they believe stem from the repeated blasts, and they want the activity to stop.

City Councilors weighed in earlier this month with a letter to Airport Authority Chair Bill Kehoe, a UVA economics professor, requesting the airport stop the explosions, saying the body “believes more can be done to better understand whether the blasting is or is not having an effect on the homes.” The other two members of the independent Authority are Albemarle County Executive Tom Foley and Charlottesville’s Director of Economic Development Aubrey Watts.

According to a report in The Hook, Executive Director Melinda Crawford said the airport planned to continue the project as planned unless told otherwise by the Authority, but is also working to satisfy residents’ concerns and “be good neighbors.”

County considers new home for Northside Library

Albemarle County is eying a former commercial space on Rio Road as a potential new home for the Northside branch of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library System.

Northside is currently housed in a storefront in the Albemarle Square Shopping Center, but according to a story by Charlottesville Tomorrow, members of the Planning Commission agreed last week that the space is too small and dark to be the home of the system’s busiest branch. While the county’s capital improvement program doesn’t designate funding for a new library, the Commission gave its support to a plan to buy a 3-acre Rio plot that includes the 36,000-square-foot former Phillips Building Supply structure, which would cost an estimated $3 million to purchase and $8 million to redevelop. The final decision on whether to go ahead with the project rests with the Board of Supervisors.

When Bank of America closes its branch doors downtown in February, it leaves a grand 1916 building in its wake that will house a steakhouse, according to building owner Hunter Craig. And while he declined to identify the grilled meat purveyor, he did say it would be locally owned, not a

Elizabeth Valtierra was nervous. Like many across the nation, the Charlottesville High School senior spent election night with her family, gathered around a television in the living room. As the earliest states were called for Donald Trump, her family made jokes and tried to laugh it off. They

These days, Richard Spencer, class of 2001, is being voted least popular by his former classmates at UVA and his Dallas prep school, St. Mark’s. Spencer, who says he coined the term “alt-right” and is president of the white nationalist National Policy Institute, has raised the ire of some UVA

And the next election cycle begins Charlottesville Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania says he’ll seek his boss’ job in 2017. Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman plans to retire after 24 years as the city’s top prosecutor. And state Senator Bryce Reeves officially threw his hat into

Even before Mark Brown listed the Main Street Arena for sale for $6.5 million in September, the rumor mill was working overtime about possible buyers for the prime Downtown Mall location, including speculation back in the spring that a Japanese developer wanted to turn it into a hotel. The

Another unremarkably named structure will soon be joining The Flats and The Uncommon student housing on West Main: The Standard. Located across the street from The Flats on the site of the soon-to-be demolished Republic Plaza, the six-story, 70′ structure has already raised concerns about

An overflow crowd packed City Council chambers December 5 for Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s first appearance since the racist, misogynist and homophobic tweets he made before taking office were released on Thanksgiving. And the man who created the firestorm, Jason Kessler, showed up with a petition

Christopher Seymore, an ex-officer with the Charlottesville Police Department, appeared in the city’s general district court via webcam December 2. Charged the previous day with two counts of forcible sodomy, he was denied bond until he can meet with his court-appointed attorney. Seymore, 35,

In early November, an Albemarle County police K9 bit and injured a colt owned by an Augusta County farm owner—just a year and a half after a dog with the Charlottesville Police Department attacked a child. Is it time for man’s best friend to be laid off? While on a jog with its handler November

Tired of tucking tags into your new party dress so you can return it after you wear it to a big event? You’re in luck—two local innovators have solved that problem for you. And it’s completely legal. Introducing Rohvi, a technology platform that allows subscribers to buy full-price items at

Even in November, balmy weather and the Virginia Film Festival had throngs out on the Downtown Mall. But it wasn’t always that way. For years after Charlottesville bricked its main street in 1976, the place was a ghost town after 5pm. Landscape architect Lawrence Halprin’s early 1970s vision of

We’ve all heard tales of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, a three-day feast among Native Americans and pilgrims, celebrating the latter’s first harvest in the New World. This year, some locals spent the holiday at Standing Rock Reservation, supporting the indigenous people in North and South

Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, a teacher at Albemarle High School, has agreed to take an administrative leave of absence while the school division investigates “vulgar” tweets he made before being elected to Charlottesville City Council, according to a statement today from the Albemarle

On a recent day, Cristine Nardi, executive director of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, was working with four different nonprofits on a variety of challenges: a succession plan for an executive director; how to handle a potential sexual harassment issue within the organization; how to do a

Another development planned for West Main Street comes in the form of a Richmond-based, 75-room boutique hotel and art gallery called Quirk. On August 30, an application for the project was presented to the Board of Architectural Review, and neighbors were there to voice their concerns. “It’s

A journey to India for meditation and enlightenment in late November 2008 turned into a terrorist bloodbath that left 164 people dead throughout multiple locations in Mumbai. Among them were a father and daughter from Synchronicity Foundation in Nelson County. Days later, the modern

The faint smell of smoke surrounding the city Tuesday morning is coming from two large wildfires in Nelson and Amherst counties, according to Charlottesville Fire Department Chief Andrew Baxter. The situation in Nelson County, referred to as Eades Hollow Fire, is currently consuming between 300

Sandra Marks, aka Psychic Catherine, was sentenced to 30 months in jail November 18 in federal court for bilking victims in search of spiritual solace, and she was ordered to pay more than $5.4 million in restitution. In court and in a sentencing memo, Marks’ attorney, Bill Dinkin, said

Awkward election night, part 1 After three University Police officers used their PA systems to broadcast “Make America great again” in the wee hours, Chief Michael Gibson says in a November 10 e-mail he was “disappointed” in the inappropriate use. UPD is investigating the incident and the three

“Take it one day at a time,” former smoker David Allard says about the best way to approach kicking a bad habit. “You just have to keep trying.” Picking up his first cigarette at 15 years old, Allard, now 52, says he’s learned that quitting smoking is a different journey for everyone who’s ever